Nuclear Regulatory Commission released the results of a special inspection that said two sets of electrical cables that are supposed to provide redundancy in Unit 3 weren’t properly separated. Public Service Commission staff members earlier estimated that the typical customer will have paid $854 in financing costs alone by the time the Vogtle reactors are finished. Georgia Power’s 2.6 million customers have already paid more than $3.5 billion toward the cost of Vogtle units 3 and 4 under an arrangement that’s supposed to hold down borrowing costs. Some consumers have asked the five-member elected Public Service Commission to delay the Vogtle rate increase, citing two other upcoming Georgia Power rate increases. What would be roughly a 3% rate increase for residential customers, or $3.78 a month on a bill of $122.73, is supposed to take effect after Unit 3 goes into commercial operation. The Georgia Public Service Commission plans to vote next month on what could be a $224 million rate increase to pay for $2.1 billion in construction costs on Unit 3. The delay could also push back when customers will begin paying a larger share of the plant’s costs.
Southern recorded its entire share of the July costs as a loss to shareholders, but could still ask ratepayers to pay. When Georgia Power announced a delay of three to four months in July, the combined additional cost to all owners was around $1 billion. But the amount could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Southern said Thursday that it would release a new estimate of Vogtle’s costs along with quarterly earnings next week. Also obligated to buy power from Vogtle are Florida’s Jacksonville Electric Authority and some cooperatives and municipal utilities in Alabama. Georgia Power, which owns 46% of the project, had already estimated it would spend $9.2 billion, with another $3.2 billion in financing costs.īesides Georgia Power, most electrical cooperatives and municipal utilities in Georgia own shares of the plants. The delay will mean more costs for a project already estimated to exceed $27.8 billion overall. The fourth reactor won’t come online until sometime between April and June of 2023.
Previously the company said it would start in June at the latest. now says the third reactor at Plant Vogtle won’t start generating electricity until sometime between July and September of next year. is pushing back the startup date for its two new nuclear reactors near Augusta, saying it’s still redoing sloppy construction work and that contractors still aren’t meeting deadlines.
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